This website was created to chronicle the adventure of Geoff Nelson and Elliott Rader as they embark on a motorcycle ride that will take them thousands of miles – from California to Alaska and then back to their respective homes.
For a little background, here’s the story of how Geoff and I met and how we decided to make this trip to Alaska.
Here’s the story…
August, 2009.I was in San Francisco and had a couple weeks off of work so I bought a used BMW motorcycle to ride back to Chicago. I had been staying at a friends house in the Marina District of San Fran while I was preparing for my trip. Departure day finally came – a foggy Saturday morning. I hadn’t done much planning – I just figured I would head north across the Golden Gate and towards Portland, OR. I was minutes away from leaving and as I was making the last preparations to my bike, I looked up to see a guy on a *huge* BMW GSA riding down deserted Diversadero avenue (it was 8 am after all). He sees me, I see him and his insane amount of gear on his bike. My first thought was something like “oh my god this guy knows what he’s doing – I wish I was riding with him” and as he goes by I give a wave as if to say “holy shit dude, where are you going?”
He goes on about 100 feet does a u-turn and comes back to say hi. He asks where I’m going. I kind of shrug my shoulders and mumble something about Portland. He says that he’s actually heading that same way and is meeting his brother and a friend down the street in a few minutes and asks if I would like to join. I say “yes, please”.
It’s pretty much history from there as I rode with Geoff, his brother Kevin and Kevin’s friend Peter for the next 5 days until we parted ways in…Portland. We all became instant friends and Geoff and I decided that this summer we would go big and make the trip to Alaska, so here we are.
Elliott leaving San Fran that fateful day
All of us meeting (for the first time really) near the Golden Gate Bridge